Real Estate News

JANUARY 3, 2025

After remaining largely stable during the second half of 2024, recent threats from agents and local associations could result in further declines this year.

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Agents 362

Keeping Current Matters

JANUARY 27, 2025

Let’s face it — buying a home can feel like a challenge with today’s mortgage rates.

Mortgages 282

Mortgages 282

Housing Wire

JANUARY 27, 2025

Todays new home sales report beat market expectations, just like last weeks existing home sales report. However, a detailed analysis of the data explains why housing permits continue to remain at recession-level figures. Builders are struggling to get clarity on how many homes they can sell in this rate environment in the future. Without more clarity on mortgage rates , substantial growth in housing permits is unlikely.

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Sales Construction Mortgages Residential 485

Housing Wire

JANUARY 3, 2025

The California Department of Insurance unveiled a new regulation this week that aims to increase homeowners insurance coverage in areas prone to wildfires , a response to the recent pullback in policies by several major insurers. Announced by California insurance commissioner Ricardo Lara on Monday, the regulation is under administrative review and is set to take effect by the end of January, according to reporting by The Associated Press (AP).

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Design Marketing As-is Sales 523

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Development

Housing Wire

JANUARY 9, 2025

Several fires burning more than 45 square miles in the Los Angeles area have forced more than 100,000 residents from their homes and killed five people, The Associated Press reported on Thursday. Nearly 2,000 homes, businesses and other structures have been destroyed, with many displaced residents scouting for rental properties and temporary shelter.

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Marketing Lending Land Residential 501

Housing Wire

JANUARY 27, 2025

New home sales continue to be a bright spot in a dismal housing market. The December report from the U.S. Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development shows new-home sales registering at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 698,000, good for a 6.7% rise year over year and 3.6% higher than November. Even better, new home sales for the calendar year 2024 are estimated at 683,000, which is 2.5% more than 2023 and the highest sales have been since 2021.

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Sales New Construction MLS Mortgages 476

Housing Wire

JANUARY 22, 2025

Single-family rental ( SFR ) homes are now priced 20% higher than the typical apartment, according to Zillow s rental market report for December 2024. This is the largest difference ever recorded by the real estate portal as the pricing gap has grown considerably from pre-pandemic levels. Zillow analyzed the 50 largest U.S. metro areas and found that the typical asking rent for a single-family home reached $2,174 per month in December.

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Construction Mortgages Sales Marketing 448

Housing Wire

JANUARY 17, 2025

Todays housing starts data exceeded estimates; however, a closer examination of the report with the builder confidence reveals that the recent rise in mortgage rates , approaching 7.25%, has negatively affected builder sentiment. Since late 2022, our analysis indicates that mortgage rates in the 6%-6.5% range are positive to grow sales, whereas rates at 7% and above especially 7.50% or higher significantly impact the builder data.

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Mortgages Construction Sales As-is 488

Housing Wire

JANUARY 24, 2025

Existing home sales ended the year on a positive note , which aligns with our weekly Housing Market Tracker data, but something surprising is that home prices firmed up late in the year as well. We observed a shift in the forward-looking data starting in the summer, which continued throughout the year. Notably, we compared the data from 2022 and 2023 and noticed positive year-over-year data starting in October 2024, which you can see in the chart below.

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Sales Mortgages As-is Marketing 482

Housing Wire

JANUARY 23, 2025

Fannie Mae s title insurance pilot program could save borrowers up to $2.19 billion. This is according to a study released in January by Legal Economics Andrew Rodrigo Nigrinisand Todd Zywicki of the George Mason Universitys Antonin Scalia School of Law.Nigrinis is a former enforcement economist at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). In their analysis, Nigrinis and Zywicki found that borrowers refinancing their mortgage could save an estimated $2.19 billion in total or as much as $1

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Title Land Loans Closing costs 468

Speaker: Abdi Ali, Sr. Lease Accounting Consultant

Join this insightful webinar with industry expert Abdi Ali, who will discuss the challenges that can arise from managing lease accounting with spreadsheets! He will share real-world examples of errors, compliance issues, and risks that may be present within your spreadsheets. Learn how these tools, while useful, can sometimes lead to inefficiencies that affect your time, resources, and peace of mind.

Industrial

Housing Wire

JANUARY 10, 2025

Real estate and mortgage firms are stepping up to help housing professionals and the Southern California community as wildfires ravage the area. Here’s a roundup of the companies and people offering help, which will be updated with new information as it becomes available. Help for those in the community Coldwell Banker Realty in Southern California, which is affiliated with Anywhere , created a Facebook group page for its network to coordinate a wide variety of needs from short- and long-t

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Land Agents As-is Industrial 488

Housing Wire

JANUARY 9, 2025

This week, the Seattle City Council had its first meeting of 2025 and housing was a key topic of discussion. But if the meeting itself was any indication, determining a path forward for the citys severe housing shortage will be a struggle as elected leaders attempt to ascertain a sustainable plan for the next decade, according to reporting by The Seattle Times.

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Construction Commercial Land Development 448

Housing Wire

JANUARY 28, 2025

Nationstar Mortgage currently doing business as Mr. Cooper has agreed to settle a lawsuit which alleges that the company violated mortgage servicing laws and forced borrowers into foreclosure. Attorneys general and mortgage regulators in 50 states, as well the District of Columbia, agreed to a settlement that requires Mr. Cooper to provide $5.8 million in payments to eligible borrowers.

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Inspection Loans Mortgages As-is 443

Housing Wire

JANUARY 8, 2025

As wildfires tear through Southern California and firefighters battle winds up to 100 mph, tens of thousands of residents have evacuated. The looming impacts on real estate and insurance are also at the forefront of Californians minds. According to Anthony Marrone, the fire chief for Los Angeles County , the wildfires have torched more than 1,000 structures, killing at least two people and injuring several more.

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Banks As-is Development Closing 418

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As the real estate market evolves, technology has become essential for success. According to NAR, only 26% of agents feel their brokerage provides the necessary tech tools and, as a result, agents seek teams and brokerages who prioritize technology investments! Whether you manage an established team or are forming a new one, this guide outlines key considerations and necessary applications to thrive.

Agents

Housing Wire

JANUARY 8, 2025

Heading into the 2025 housing market, we havent had this many homeowners with mortgage rates over 6% since 2016. According to the latest FHFA data , as of Q3 2024, 17.2% of outstanding mortgages, around 8.7 million borrowers, carry a mortgage with an interest rate over 6%. In the last decade, as more and more homebuyers financed their purchases with mortgage rates in the 4s or lower, an interesting thing happened: We held on to these homes longer and resold them less often.

Mortgages 488

Mortgages Finance Loans Equity 488

Housing Wire

JANUARY 30, 2025

Pending home sales ended the year on a down note, according to data published on Thursday by the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Compared to a month prior, contract signings fell 5.5% in December, with the Pending Home Sales Index coming in at a reading of 74.4. An index reading of 100 is equal to the level of contract signings in 2001. Annually, pending home sales were down 5.0% compared to a year prior in December.

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Sales MLS Mortgages Marketing 437

Housing Wire

JANUARY 6, 2025

Vanderbilt Mortgage & Finance , part of Warren Buffetts conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway , has been accused by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) of manipulating underwriting standards and setting borrowers up to fail in manufactured home loans. The consumer watchdog on Monday filed a lawsuit in a U.S. district court in Tennessee against Vanderbilt for purported violations of the Truth in Lending Act and Regulation Z.

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Loans Finance Lending Mortgages 448

Housing Wire

JANUARY 22, 2025

The Housing Rights Initiative (HRI) is taking aim at 165 real estate agents, brokerage firms and landlords in its latest series of lawsuits filed in Chicago. The group claims that this is the largest housing discrimination case in Illinois history. The lawsuits, filed on Monday, are the result of an undercover investigation conducted by HRI. In total, the housing watchdog group filed 176 complaints against 165 defendants with the Illinois Department of Human Rights.

Brokerage 418

Brokerage Agents As-is 418

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Sales

Housing Wire

JANUARY 2, 2025

Rising mortgage rates suppressed applications in the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) final mortgage applications survey index of 2024, released on Thursday. Unsurprisingly, application volume dropped significantly even with a seasonal adjustment to account for the holidays. Mortgage demand declined 21.9% from two weeks earlier during the week ending Dec. 27, the MBA reported.

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FHA loan Mortgages VA loan Loans 468

Housing Wire

JANUARY 16, 2025

Mortgage and property tax payments are not the only expenses that prospective homeowners need to consider. Homeowners associations (HOAs) are commonplace, and more of them are requiring owners to pay up, according to a survey by Realtor.com. Realtor.com’s report found that 40.5% of listings in 2024 had some sort of HOA fee and these expenses became even more costly.

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New Construction Construction Mortgages Sales 397

Housing Wire

JANUARY 20, 2025

Cybercrime losses rose to a record high of $12.8 billion in 2023, according to the FBI’s Internet Crime Report , and 2024 saw more of the same. Consider these stats: FundingShield reported that 45.5% of loans processed in Q4 2024 had issues that lead to wire fraud risks. NDP Analytics reported that in just one month in 2024, 19% of firms reported a seller impersonation fraud attempt.

Title 397

Title Technology Industrial Banks 397

Housing Wire

JANUARY 22, 2025

The Colorado Board of Real Estate Appraisers executed a Stipulation and Final Agency Order for public censure, fines, and revocation of the license for Maksym Mykhailyna, according to an announcement in early January. Mykhailyna, who is based in Denver, had previously held both a Colorado certified residential appraiser license and a controlling appraiser license.

Mortgages 418

Mortgages Residential Development 418

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Brokerage

Housing Wire

JANUARY 9, 2025

In 2024, more people moved out of Illinois than into the Prairie State. According to the National Movers Study conducted by United Van Lines , 60% of moves in Illinois last year were outbound, which was the second-highest percentage of outbound moves among all states. The most popular reasons for relocating out of state were family (cited by 25.9% of respondents), jobs (20.7%) and retirement (20.3%).

Marketing 418

Marketing Agents As-is Mortgages 418

Housing Wire

JANUARY 15, 2025

Researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) released an in-depth study this week in which they argue that decades of policy missteps have created a shortage of affordable housing across the U.S. and are pushing homeownership out of reach for millions of Americans. The full study , which was published in the January edition of The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, goes back 20 years to examine the origins of the current housing crisis.

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Lending New Construction Staging Construction 418

Housing Wire

JANUARY 7, 2025

Experian has become the latest focus of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) as the agency intensifies its regulatory and enforcement activity ahead of the impending White House transition. On Tuesday, the CFPB filed a lawsuit against Experian in a U.S. district court in California, accusing the credit reporting giant of violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA).

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Finance Banks Mortgages Loans 418

Housing Wire

JANUARY 22, 2025

Property management company Evernest announced on Wednesday its largest acquisition to date. The company will acquire tech-enabled property management platform Poplar Homes alongside $15 million in growth-centered funding. The acquisition follows more than 30 made by Evernest since the company arrived on-scene in 2008. Adding Poplar Homes establishes Evernest as the second-largest tech-enabled property management platform for rental property owners.

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Property Management Investor Lending Renovation 394

Speaker: Sarah Santa Ana, Real Estate Coach, Move4Free Realty

Networking is one of the crucial elements in every real estate organization's success. Both agents and real estate companies need to maintain robust networking links. This is why social media is essential for any real estate professional! Social media enables you to stay in touch with your present clients, maintain connections with your past clients, and engage potential customers and investors.

Agents

Housing Wire

JANUARY 24, 2025

Real estate agents who rely heavily on cold calling may need to rethink some of their marketing tactics. Changes to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), including the one-to-one consent rule, go into effect on Monday, Jan. 27. Under the consent rule, anyone soliciting a consumers business through a phone call or text message must obtain the consumer’s written consent prior to sending robocalls or texts.

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Pre-approval Brokerage Agents As-is 396

Housing Wire

JANUARY 6, 2025

The New Years week was expected to be slow, so it’s no surprise that new listings and sales are down. Those will start rebounding in next weeks data. The Christmas and New Year’s holidays fell on Wednesdays this year, which messes up two full weeks in terms of getting home sales done and tracking the numbers. At the same time, mortgage rates jumped back over 7%.

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Sales Days on market Mortgages Marketing 448

Housing Wire

JANUARY 27, 2025

Have a seat and buckle in. The real estate industry is already in a whirlwind and the year has barely kicked off. To put it simply, the industry appears to be in its rapid evolution era. What does this look like? Firstly, real estate professionals are facing an unyielding storm of new challenges. For example, changing agent commission guidelines and emerging lead contact regulations are keeping professionals up at night.

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Technology Renovation Agents Industrial 397

Housing Wire

JANUARY 13, 2025

Youre bound to find variability in the total cost estimates related to the damage and destruction caused by the wildfires in Southern California , but some of the variations are exacerbated by what is included versus what is excluded in these estimates. According to CoreLogic , the total damage cost estimate for the Los Angeles wildfires as it relates to insured properties is currently at $30 billion.

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Development As-is Marketing 397

Speaker: Trey Willard, Realtor/Team Leader at Keller Williams Realty, Inc.

In order to create continued success in today’s real estate market, realtors need to utilize an arsenal of technology that will increase their efficiency and presence on social media. Using technology to manage your prospects and tap into their needs through websites, social media, and other channels is critical for real estate success in 2022 and beyond.

Agents